by Seth Hemmelgarn

San Francisco's Castro Country Club, which hosts 12-step
meetings and other services for LGBTs in recovery, has a new fiscal sponsor.
The nonprofit hopes the arrangement will help it grow.

For several years, the country club had been a fiscally
sponsored project of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. But in May, it
announced that it's now working with Community Initiatives. The agency, which
also sponsors San Francisco's El/La Para TransLatinas and Dyke March, uses back
office services such as financial management and human resources to help
nonprofits focus on their missions.

Country club Executive Director Billy Lemon said that when
SFAF became the project's sponsor about four years ago, "they took us on
to help us get to the next step." The plan was to eventually find a
business that focuses on fiscal sponsorships for small nonprofits, Lemon said,
adding, "We are really, really appreciative of the steadfast support of
the AIDS foundation."

SFAF "helped us run a balanced budget," he said.
"... We've been in the black for the last two years."

The country club's budget is $398,000.

What's helped has been having "a more robust advisory
board with some dedicated individuals that were focused on getting us to the
point where we were more professional," Lemon said, as well as "a
loyal donor base that stepped up," and active volunteers, which has
allowed the Country Club to raise more money through participating in street
fairs.

Andrea Aguilar, client services manager at Community
Initiatives, said the country club had been looking for "a fiscal sponsor
that could provide a variety of different services, as well as help them grow
as an organization."

Aguilar said her agency will provide some strategic support,
along with guidance on different fundraising methods.

Community Initiatives charges 10 percent of gross revenue
receipts and 15 percent of government revenue, so the sponsorship could cost the
country club up to 25 percent of its revenue, but "it will probably be
more on the 10 percent side," said Aguilar.

Lemon estimated the country club would be paying $41,000 for
Community Initiatives' services, which is about what it had paid to SFAF.

Joe Hollendoner, SFAF's CEO, said in a statement that his agency "has been honored to serve as the fiscal sponsor for the Castro Country Club for the past five years. With our intention to serve in this role for a limited period now fulfilled, we are delighted that this important organization has found a strong, long-term partner in Community Initiatives. We look forward to continuing our programmatic collaboration with CCC to promote substance health within our community.”